Biscuits reduce your shelf life

LONDON: Eating biscuits, cakes and processed foods that contain trans fat could harm your memory, warn researchers.

A study of 1 000 healthy men aged under 45 found that those who ate the most trans fat had worse scores in a word memory test. The link remained after taking account of age, education and depression.

Participants in the study were asked to complete a dietary questionnaire, from which their trans fat consumption was estimated, before being put through the test.

Each additional gram a day of the fats consumed was associated with an estimated 0.76 fewer words correctly recalled.

Trans fats are created when hydrogen is added to vegetable oil to make it more solid. They are used both in processed food and in restaurants, often to improve the texture, shelf life or flavour of foods.

The UK food industry has in recent years reduced or eliminated industrially produced trans fat in foods.

Study leader Dr Beatrice Golomb, of the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, said the fats, which have been linked to higher body weight, more aggression and heart disease, “increase the shelf life of foods, but reduce the shelf life of people”. – Daily Mail